Colchester County High School for Girls

My daughter attends this school and has had horrific bullying simply for being ginger. She has used barking as a method of deterring these bulllies however, this has lead to further bullying.

Please work on staff and student discipline.

The teachers here label certain groups of students as "bad crowds." I feel uncomfortable with this labeling, students shouldn't be named like this. They aren't bad they just make bad choices. The generalization of students is ridiculous just because your friend made one bad decision doesn't mean your hanging with the wrong crowd. I think teachers should think before they use these demoralizing terms to describe students. Just because a student doesn't act in the right manner it doesn't give you an excuse to talk about them with such bad terms.

This school stresses students out!For example,in the first term they are suddenly forced to read or else you get detention! They’re good in studies but very stingy with notebooks and paper ! There is a teacher who screamed at someone in the class for leaving one line!!!

They DONT care about your mental well-being!!! They add so much hw (=stress) ! In the first term they are given thousands of tests to do, this is tooo overwhelming!

This school is preparing girls for a world where it’s there fault because their skirts weren’t below the knee, their socks didn’t cover their ankles, their shoulders were showing. Its encouraging backward beliefs, making sure male teachers don’t get distracted.
Only girls is such an artificial environment, not even sixth form can equip us for real life, our clothing and freedom controlled.
It’s also so hard for those who don’t feel comfortable as a girl and wish to change their name, teachers refuse to change names on registers so every day, the student must correct teachers of their new name.
Sport: if you are amazing at a sport then great you’ll be on the teams, going to training and tournaments but if you are good it’s not good enough. They only support those who compete in sports outside of school. If you are looking to improve your sporting ability, maybe join a team for the first time then this school is NOT for you.
Parents: there is a crazy amount of parents that put extreme pressure on their children in the tests in class that actually don’t mean anything. There are kids that are scared to tell their parents how they did on their end of topic tests in year 8 because they don’t want to be yelled at over dinner for being a disappointment. This is the type of behaviour that the school is basically encouraging by expecting the best - unless you got a 100% you could always do better. The amount of people I saw break down over mocks, GCSEs and A levels because of how worried they were at what result they would get and how their parents would react.
Mental health: if you join this school as a happy innocent kid, you will either stay happy or come out as a completely different person - and not different in a good way. It strips you of your confidence, self belief and self esteem. But if your grades are fine then there can’t be anything wrong with you? If your grades are ok there is no reason for you to behave like this? Because that’s what they look at - your grades. And if your grades are fine then what are you making all the fuss about? And if your grades are that bad that they think you should talk to someone, you’ll spend about 10 minutes a week with someone who is unqualified and constantly asks you what’s wrong at home because they can’t possibly see that school could be the problem. If you don’t feel good at school it’s because it’s not good at home apparently. Which is of course true for some people, what do you expect with the environment the school has created, stress from parents and stress from school.
Academics: the one good thing about this school if the quality of teaching from the majority of the teachers. From day one you are prepared to have grade 9 responses in every subject. Even if you don’t revise for your exams you are practically guaranteed good grades.
Overall I think the little positives are certainly outweighed by the negatives
What to take away from this: this school supports the best (the best at sports, the best at work) because they want your name attached to the school, if you become an Olympic swimmer they want the credit. This school just wants to use you to build its reputation but if you have nothing to give then don’t expect much. This place does not prepare you for real life. It’s full of people about to break down, literally crying out for help that won’t be noticed. Please don’t go here if you want to stay happy.

I mean it's okay but they don't really care that much abt ur mental health. they pressure u to do it work and take the littlest things seriously

Firstly, I would like to mention that most of my teachers are kind, and I won't forget their kindness, but it is the attitude of the school that begins to damage young minds that are sensitive and developing.
I've always felt uninspired at this school, tearful a lot in lessons because I thought this is all the world has to offer me: academia. It sounds very dramatic but I have never felt like I've fit in here, that's the trouble with a concentrated group of academically intelligent girls. I've come so far without letting it upset me too much, but now as I get older I realise how down and unfulfilled I've been here. I realise now that feeling uninspired is not my fault, they are just not talking about the things that inspire me. When I leave this school, I won't be getting phone calls to say well done for my GCSEs, because I am just a number in this exam factory. I never feel valued for the work I do here. I am a good story teller, but sometimes I feel like I'm really not because when I hand in my writing I'm told it 'often doesn't make sense and lacks in structural devices'.
There is a serious lack of help, the pastoral are kind but there is an urgent need for professionals and an acknowledgement of the poor mental health of students as young as 11.
They often tell us that the strict uniform rules are helping us get used to the real world. What they don't know is that this is not the real world and they are building us up to leave this school with good grades, but without the self confidence to do anything about them, afraid of failure, not quite knowing all the possibilities that lay before us.
I was once told that if I leave this school, I will 'squander my education'. No. If I stay at this school I will squander my mental health.
I am overjoyed that GCSEs will be over soon so I can go to college and meet people who are a bit more like me, they pick and choose, they know their worth surpasses achievement. I will see the world as the colourful place that it is. What I've not been told much is that I can be anything I want.
When I'm older, if I decide to have children, they will not be going to a grammar school. I will send them to a place where they are nurtured, not knocked down.

The school attains good grades, but this is obviously as a result of grouping up top students that actually care about getting good grades, if you get a grade under a 7 - you're considered weak, and that's the bare minimum according to the school. The school likes to group people according to their grades and recently made a Microsoft team called 'More Able' where they would provide extra support to those getting the top grades, implying that the rest of the school didn't matter. Not only are they so blatantly focused on grades, but they constantly ridicule students and humiliate them (sometimes outside school) for the way they wear their school uniform - this may seem a minor issue at first- but if your skirt is even slightly above the knee you are suddenly given a whole stream of rants, with one person I know being told that her skirt was a safeguarding issue because she, like the rest of us rolled it, and their reasoning for such outdated school rules (knee length skirts, ankle socks etc) is that it may distract the male staff- which is ridiculous and despite the school's constant claims that they care about letting women express themselves, they are still treating us like we are the problem when it comes to the male gaze. My final point, although there are many more that I haven't cared to mention, is that the school is constantly limiting the freedom of it's students more and more, in fact they are rather adamant on introducing a new uniform for the sixth formers, which everyone is very much against, and being in year 11 myself, I have started to consider other areas for my sixth form education if this degradation of students continues.

The school attains good grades, but this is obviously as a result of grouping up top students that actually care about getting good grades, if you get a grade under a 7 - you're considered weak, and that's the bare minimum according to the school. The school likes to group people according to their grades and recently made a Microsoft team called 'More Able' where they would provide extra support to those getting the top grades, implying that the rest of the school didn't matter. Not only are they so blatantly focused on grades, but they constantly ridicule students and humiliate them (sometimes outside school) for the way they wear their school uniform - this may seem a minor issue at first- but if your skirt is even slightly above the knee you are suddenly given a whole stream of rants, with one person I know being told that her skirt was a safeguarding issue because she, like the rest of us rolled it, and their reasoning for such outdated school rules (knee length skirts, ankle socks etc) is that it may distract the male staff- which is ridiculous and despite the school's constant claims that they care about letting women express themselves, they are still treating us like we are the problem when it comes to the male gaze. My final point, although there are many more that I haven't cared to mention, is that the school is constantly limiting the freedom of it's students more and more, in fact they are rather adamant on introducing a new uniform for the sixth formers, which everyone is very much against, and being in year 11 myself, I have started to consider other areas for my sixth form education if this degradation of students continues.

Good facilities and good-quality food, although slightly pricy. There's too much pressure about grades, however I can see that the school tries to improve students' mental health by having pastoral offices, posters etc. also some clocks and vending machines are broken for months, unfixed.

It’s good but there’s loads of pressure on academic success like getting 9s and stuff. This has affected the mental health of loads of students so make sure you can handle it.